Privacy Policy for Acton Carpet Cleaners

This Privacy Policy explains how Acton Carpet Cleaners collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. It applies to all Acton Carpet Cleaners customers in the area, including prospective customers, existing customers, and individuals who enquire about our services. We are committed to handling personal information fairly, lawfully, and transparently.

This policy applies only to personal data processed in connection with our carpet cleaning services and related customer communications.

1. Who We Are

Acton Carpet Cleaners provides professional carpet cleaning services to residential and commercial customers in the local area. For the purposes of data protection law, we act as the data controller when we decide why and how your personal data is used. This means we are responsible for ensuring that your information is processed in line with applicable legal requirements and that your rights are respected.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We collect only the information we need to provide our services, manage customer relationships, and meet legal obligations. The types of personal data we may collect include:

• Identity data such as your name and title.
• Contact data such as your address, email address, and telephone number.
• Service details such as booking times, service preferences, access instructions, and information about the carpets or fabrics to be cleaned.
• Payment data such as transaction records and payment confirmations. We do not store full card details where a secure payment processor handles the payment.
• Communication data such as messages, enquiries, complaints, and feedback.
• Technical data if you interact with our digital systems, such as basic device or usage information collected for security and service improvement purposes.

We generally collect data directly from you when you make an enquiry, request a quote, book a service, pay for a service, or communicate with us. In some cases, we may also receive information from third parties, such as property managers, landlords, or payment providers, where necessary for service delivery or administration.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data only where we have a valid legal reason to do so. The main purposes for which we process data include:

• responding to enquiries and providing quotes;
• managing bookings and delivering carpet cleaning services;
• processing payments and keeping financial records;
• communicating about appointments, service updates, or customer support;
• handling complaints, disputes, and insurance-related matters;
• maintaining business records and meeting legal, accounting, and tax obligations;
• improving our services, customer experience, and internal operations;
• protecting against fraud, misuse, or security incidents.

We do not use your personal data for unrelated purposes without first ensuring that we have a lawful basis to do so.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under UK GDPR, we must identify a lawful basis for each activity that involves personal data. Depending on the situation, we rely on one or more of the following bases:

Contract

We process your data when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes arranging bookings, carrying out cleaning services, taking payment, and managing service-related communications.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is in our legitimate interests to do so, provided that those interests do not override your rights and freedoms. Examples include improving our services, maintaining business records, preventing fraud, and managing customer support. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider the impact on your privacy and apply safeguards as appropriate.

Legal Obligation

We may need to process and retain certain data to comply with legal obligations, such as tax rules, accounting requirements, consumer law, or insurance-related obligations.

Consent

In limited circumstances, we may ask for your consent to use your data for specific purposes. Where consent is used, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

5. Data Sharing and Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties when necessary to operate our business and provide services. These third parties act either as independent controllers or as processors who act on our instructions.

Examples of processors and service providers may include:

• Payment processors used to handle secure card or electronic payments.
• IT and software providers used for scheduling, messaging, record keeping, and secure data storage.
• Accountants and bookkeeping providers who help with financial administration and compliance.
• Customer service or communication tools that help us manage bookings and respond to enquiries.
• Professional advisers such as legal advisers or insurers where necessary for advice, claims, or dispute resolution.

We require processors to handle data securely, only for authorised purposes, and in compliance with data protection law. We do not sell your personal data.

We may also disclose data if required to do so by law, regulation, court order, or competent authority, or where disclosure is necessary to protect our legal rights, customers, or staff.

6. International Transfers

Where a service provider stores or accesses data outside the UK, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful transfer mechanisms recognised under data protection law.

7. Data Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, and in line with legal, tax, accounting, and operational requirements. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information and the reason for processing.

• Customer service records may be retained for a reasonable period to manage follow-up work, complaints, or disputes.
• Financial and transaction records are typically retained for the period required by law.
• Enquiry data that does not result in a booking may be deleted after a suitable period unless there is a legitimate reason to keep it longer.
• Data subject to legal claims or insurance matters may be retained until the matter is resolved and any relevant limitation period has expired.

When data is no longer required, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you.

8. Data Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, staff confidentiality obligations, and careful selection of trusted processors. While no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, we take data protection seriously and regularly review our safeguards.

9. Your Rights

As a data subject under UK GDPR, you have certain rights in relation to your personal data. These rights are subject to conditions and legal exemptions, but we will always respond appropriately and within the required time limits.

• Right of access - you may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification - you may ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to erasure - in some cases, you may request that we delete your data.
• Right to restrict processing - you may ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
• Right to object - you may object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing, where applicable.
• Right to data portability - you may request a copy of certain data in a structured, commonly used format.
• Right to withdraw consent - where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you believe your data protection rights have been infringed.

10. Automated Decision-Making

We do not normally use automated decision-making or profiling in a way that produces legal or similarly significant effects. If this changes in the future, we will update this policy and provide the information required by law.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or operational needs. Any updated version will apply from the date it is made available. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their personal data is used.

12. Our Commitment to Privacy

We respect the privacy of every customer and aim to keep personal data accurate, secure, and used only when necessary. Whether you are requesting a quotation, booking a service, or using our carpet cleaning services in the local area, we will process your information responsibly and in accordance with the principles of lawfulness, fairness, transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity, and accountability.

By using Acton Carpet Cleaners’ services, you acknowledge that your personal data may be processed as described in this Privacy Policy.